Say the Word
by dickard23
Summary: Brenda Leigh Johnson has moved on from Major Crimes. "Life is for the living." She tries to turn over a new leaf, but quickly reverts back to her old ways. To cure her alleged wrongdoing, she agrees to take on a mission for the CIA, jeopardizing her own moral integrity, but with an investigator who won't quit, can Chief Johnson really escape?
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: For whatever reason, I see this story being told in reverse, so I am. All of the times are in reference to the present scene, aka the prologue. To avoid jumping around too much, I leave somethings to be implied. Hopefully, this makes sense. If it doesn't, tell me in a review and I'll fill in the gaps.

* * *

**Prologue**

Across town, Will Pope is at a banquet, with his girlfriend Morgan Winters. She is a beautiful sight: about 5'8, lean, black hair and smoky dark eyes. She looks about 30 years his junior but looks could be deceiving. He is sure that she is the one who has his heart, forever, but if he knew who she really was, then he would not feel this way. If he knew who she was, he most certainly would not be sitting next to her, not while she has the muzzle of a high powered assault rifle aimed at her chest, not while her death is imminent as soon as the sniper got the final signal, and most certainly not while his ex-lover is staring through the sight, seeing everything with her high-powered scope. The gun had the best wind/element adjuster money could buy. The shot is foolproof. All that needed to happen was ….

"Are you ready?"

"Say the word."

* * *

**Six Hours Earlier**

Brenda Leigh Johnson had a very big problem. It may have been possible that Flynn came to her in a desperate situation. It may have happened that Flynn's daughter was seriously injured in an shooting that killed her new husband, that the killer was aiming for her husband's boss who was also dead, and that Flynn was so consumed by payback that he lost his mind. Brenda may have refused to help Flynn get revenge, very sympathetic to his position, but unwilling to let him fall apart when his daughter needed him to be strong. But then again, Brenda may have reverted to her old ways and not stopped an extra-judicial killing when it seemed fitting for the circumstances.

Now, she was in trouble. At best, she could get fired for being negligent with files from her office. At worse, she could be facing an accessory to murder charge, or conspiracy to commit murder, or both if the DA is extra generous.

An old friend offered Brenda a solution to her problem, and Brenda was sure that it would be dreadful. The only way to make a murder magically drop of the radar was by doing something even worse than the murder itself. Brenda dreaded what was on the other side of that door, but she had to face it. After all the things that the Baylor trial put her through, put Fritzi through, she could not face a criminal trial. She had to escape it, and she would do whatever the agency told her to do.

She was called inside.

"Brenda, it's been a long time."

"Elaine, glad to see you have been both reinstated and promoted."

"You always did know when to compliment people. Andrew taught you well." [Cough from too many cigarettes]

"Now, that we have that out of the way, let's get down to it. I'm screwed. You know I'm screwed, and you have something that will get me un-screwed, provided I don't screw it up and end up dead or double-screwed. So what is it?"

Elaine laughed. "That's pretty much where we are, aren't we. You've been talking to Caitlin. You know she's back."

The dreaded Morgan Winters, aka, Ghostface. She was responsible for many murders, but no one ever saw her face; it was rumored she didn't have one, although she was actually quite pretty. Why else would Pope have taken her on as his first girlfriend since becoming Chief of Police. Brenda had seen to it that she was deported months earlier when they couldn't arrest her, but somehow (Will Pope) she got back into the United States with a visa. The CIA was antsy. She was a security threat, but she could not be arrested. The State Department was adamant. The United States had something to hide and they would rather risk another killing spree than bring her into custody.

"I knew it was only a matter of time." Caitlin had first asked Brenda to help track her down, when they got word that Ghostface was in LA. It took her all of one hour to figure out Morgan was with Pope. She thought that was a she had to do. Little did she know that this was the beginning and not the end.

"Well, she needs to be stopped, tonight."

"She'll finally be arrested." There were many murders in different countries. She would rot in jail, somewhere.

"Not exactly." Elaine gave Brenda a look. _Come on, you know where this is going!_

Brenda finally got her drift. "You want me too …." She knows I can't do this. I'm not a killer.

"We don't want you to. We need you. We won't be able to get anyone else ready in time."

"I can't do that. I can't just kill someone, no matter how much I dislike her."

"Think of it as absolution"

"How will this absolve me?"

"Well, the Richards case will disappear, absolving you and Flynn of any liability, criminal or otherwise, or you too can both face jail, leaving his daughter and your husband both reeling. The choice is yours." Elaine was messing with her friend, which she didn't want to do, but she needed Brenda, and she knew if Brenda wouldn't do this for herself, she would do it for her loved ones.

Brenda was trying to slow down her breathing, so she didn't pass out. She couldn't believe she was about to become what she always dreaded. She walked a fine line between justice and murder, but she never crossed it, not even to catch Stroh. How could she do this?

She had to, though, for Fritz. He could never know about Richards. She promised him she had changed after Terrell Baylor, and for a while she had, but when she heard about what happened to Flynn, all she felt was rage. She didn't think twice about leaving Flynn alone with the file. What he did with his resources was up to him!

And now, Brenda needed to think about the scales. Her personal sense of morality vs. her future and her husband, Flynn's future and his daughter, and Provenza's future. If she crossed her faded line, they could all just walk away. No one, but her and Elaine, would ever have to know, and it's not like Elaine was in any position to judge Brenda's morality anyway. Brenda would just be living a lie, one more to add to the pile. "When and where," she finally said, once she knew her voice wouldn't shake.

* * *

**Two Weeks Ago**

A special investigator, Quinn Jacobs had been assigned the Richards case and she wanted to nail Flynn (and now Brenda) to the wall. She offered a deal if Brenda would flip on Flynn, but Brenda refused to cooperate. "I have nothing to contribute to this case," she said, vaguely, not even invoking her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. She did not confirm or deny meeting Flynn at all in her office, much less leaving the Richards file out. "I was at a meeting," she lied. Jacobs couldn't prove otherwise. Flynn wouldn't speak to her at all, he did invoke.

All Jacobs had was Flynn was the one with a motive and Johnson was the one who could tell him where Richards lived, and allegedly Flynn had gone into her building one morning, but she couldn't prove that Flynn killed him or that Johnson even told Flynn where Richards was living, and she did have a meeting, which she did attend around the time Flynn had allegedly been there. Jacobs was furious, but she was not going down without a fight. She would get them both, at all costs.

* * *

**One Month Earlier**

"I wish I could help you Flynn, but I cannot give you any information- if I even had it- on Richards. You know why I can't."

Flynn may have cursed her out, kicked over her trashcan which was full of candy wrappers and Brenda may have left hurriedly for a meeting. She might have also left her file on Richards on her desk, on the top, with not much around it. Flynn may have gone to sit down in her chair and calm down and instead, seen what he needed to know He might have taken the address from the file, tracked him down and confronted him.. He might have shot Richards, fatally, in self-defense, as the struggle became deadly. He might be at risk of losing his job or going to jail for life for trying to be there for his daughter when he wasn't there for her childhood.

This risk may be small however, with Provenza and the waitress at their favorite diner willing to provide him an alibi. Without any witnesses to the event or physical evidence to put Flynn at the scene, while there is a receipt from the diner, Flynn may very well walk scot-free, that is, if he is even the killer. Brenda, herself, does not even know if he is, but she does know that if he is the killer, and he gets caught, her behind is next on the chopping block. She knows not to ask questions when she may not want to hear the answer.

* * *

**Three Months Earlier**

"It's her," Brenda was sure of it. It was Ghostface. It had to be her. Brenda never saw the woman's face until now, but she knew that it was her.

"Are you sure?" Caitlin trusted Brenda but this was a crazy development. She hadn't even been a suspect before in that case. The killer had been presumed male.

"I always thought it was a woman," Brenda said quietly. The hands were too soft to be a man's and too small. The figure was slight, and I never saw a face.

"That sounds about right, but why would she go after the Vatican?"

"I don't think she did. An Egyptian diplomat had been killed in France a few days later." Brenda found this out by reading an old French newspaper, the archives you can find online these days. "As it turns out, he and the Pope ate at the same restaurant that day."

Caitlin was trembling. This was not just one more murder. This was the murder that haunted Brenda, and now Brenda's supposed to play it cool and act like nothing's wrong, knowing that she'll be back, at any moment. This could ruin everything. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just think we should check into this."

"Brenda, you know we can't arrest her."

"We can't, but maybe the Swiss can. The US can stay out of it."

Caitlin didn't think this would work. The State Department was adamant about avoiding prosecution, although they did not specifically forbid foreign prosecution, but they would probably put a stop to it if they found out. What to do? Can the Swiss even prove it?

* * *

**Thirteen Years Earlier**

Brenda was so excited to be in Paris with her boyfriend and their job was footing the bill. Now, she needed to get him up. They had a meeting to attend.

"Wake up, wake up!" Brenda called, shaking him up and down as she straddled his hips.

"Brenda," Will groaned. "Will you please leave me alone, so I can sleep?"

"No can do. We have a meeting and you are running late." He turned to see the clock. Does it say ….

"Darn it, Brenda. We're late."

"Duh!" Brenda already showered. She just needed to change. Will, however, was a mess. Last night may have done him in a bit, partially from Brenda but mostly all the wine he drank.

He rushed into the shower and threw on a suit. They walked, arm in arm, to meet with their French counterparts. They were almost there when someone ran out of an alley, pushed Brenda into Pope and ran off. Will picked her up. "Are you okay?"

Brenda wasn't hurt, but she saw blood on her coat. "Will," her voice shaking. "Blood."

He looked at her and Brenda instinctively ran into the alley, where they saw a man bleeding to death. Brenda applied pressure to his chest, but it was too late. He would be dead on arrival. He cried, "tell my mother I'm sorry." The man turned out to be a Swiss guard, there to protect the vatican. He always watched the alley when the Pope was dining. Little did the guard know, his death had little to do with the Pope. His killer had been there for an Egyptian diplomat who happened to like the same restaurant. He lived for that day, but would die another one.

Brenda never forgot the look on his face when he died. She always wondered if they ever caught the person who stabbed him.


	2. Chapter 2

Why Brenda? Because it had to be. She was the only one who could figure out who Ghostface was. It was only fitting that she be the one to take the shot.

For fifteen years, Ghostface has been an international terror, murdering for cash and impossible to see much less find. Weapon of choice, knife, Ghostface moved silently like the night. The CIA took interest when one of their agents was stabbed to death in Egypt in 2005. He had been very close to dismanteling a terrorist cell that had been operating outside of Cairo. He had been in a crowded club and stepped outside for a cigarette. Ghostface had been waiting. He never stood a chance.

The CIA always figured that Ghostface had an accomplice, that someone arranged when and where and the payments, and he just showed up to kill. In 2010, Morgan Winters came up on their radar. She was a cultural attache, which explained her travel to various countries, and would have given her the perfect cover to assist Ghostface. When she appeared in Los Angeles in 2013, they asked a former employee, a one Brenda Leigh Johnson, to shadow her, see what she could learn. Brenda was sitting at a cafe, drinking a cup of coffee, reviewing her case file when she saw Morgan Winters herself casually walking down the street. Brenda left money on the table and followed her to a hotel room. It didn't take Brenda long to figure out that Will Pope had rented the room.

Brenda started to build her case against Winters. The woman had way more money than a cultural attache could have possibly made legally. She always had new clothes, accessories and stayed in the fanciest hotels. Her money came from somewhere and she didn't file taxes anywhere as far as Brenda could tell. The Agency was convinced that she was Ghostface's handler, but Brenda couldn't prove that. Brenda could prove, however, that the woman used fraudulent paperwork to secure her visa. Winters self-deported to escape a ten year ban from the country and Brenda continued to investigate. She knew Winters would be back, and she needed to be ready when the time came.

Something kept troubling Brenda about the case. She felt like she knew Morgan Winters, but she didn't know from where. She also couldn't talk to anyone about the case. No one, not even her husband, knew that she was moonlighting for the agency. She needed money, and it was her fault she didn't have any. Fritz spent his inheritance on her legal defense, and she felt like she owed it to him to try and get the money back. There was a big reward for catching Ghostface, and Brenda could sure use it.

She stared at her laptop, hoping for the pieces to come together, but they never did. They just stayed a scrambled mess.

Knock Knock. Brenda didn't answer the door. It opened anyway. Sharon stepped in. "Chief, is this a bad time?"

"You can call me Brenda, and I don't know if there will ever be a good time, so you may as well come in."

"The plea deal in the Ross case fell through, and we need help investigating it."

"What do you need?" Brenda sounded like she was barely awake.

"Anything. Evidence that he's drugged people without their knowledge before, that he understood the consequences of mixing this drug with alcohol, anything that would do away of his claim that he lacked criminal intent."

"That's his defense?"

"It is now."

"I'll have my team take a look."

"Are you allright?"

"What?" No one had asked her that in a long time. Even Fritz stopped asking, since she'd rarely tell him what was wrong anyway.

"You're normally a bundle of energy, and you look like you're ready to pass out."

"Did you ever have a case that was just wearing you down. You work on it day after day, and instead of getting answers, you're just as confused as you were when you started?"

"We all get cases like that. You can't let it consume you."

Brenda looked at her. It seemed as if this case already had.

"Maybe you should take a break. I find that yoga can help clear my head sometimes."

Brenda snickered.

"Why is that funny?"

"Isn't yoga supposed to be relaxing and peaceful?"

"And?"

"And I have never seen you relaxed."

"I could say the same thing about you, Chief." Sharon left.

Brenda tried this whole yoga thing and what a bunch of hooey. The guy would talk and talk and Brenda would be too panicked about trying to get her poses right to have anytime to relax or meditate or whatever it was she was supposed to be doing. She didn't get any closer to solving her case, but one day, for whatever reason, she decided to meditate on her own. She closed her eyes and folded herself up and started to have a lucid dream. Her mind went back to Paris, back to the day when she saw the poor guard die. She felt the hands that pushed her down and in a split second, she saw his face. No. She saw her face. That's how she knew Morgan Winters. She wasn't the handler for Ghostface. She was Ghostface. That was the puzzle piece that didn't fit before. That's why Brenda couldn't figure out how she communicated with Ghostface, how he got in and out of the countries where he struck. He didn't exist. She did it all herself.

When Brenda called Elaine, she thought Brenda was nuts.

"You got this all from a dream."

"I was there. I saw her. I just didn't process it."

"Until 13 years later."

"It all fits. Why do you think we could never figure out how she spoke with him or how he got in and out of the country undetected? We were looking for a man who never existed in the first place."

Elaine was skeptical, but Brenda was right. Winters turned out to be Ghostface and when she returned, Brenda got Buzz to help her hack Winters computer. They found her money. She had put it all in bitcoins.

The reward for catching Ghostface was over a million dollars, dead or alive. Brenda wanted them to take her alive, but the CIA preferred her dead. Alive, she might escape, get a deal, reveal all kinds of secrets as to who hired her and for what purpose. The State Department was adamant that she not be taken into custody. Perhaps, they had used her services to free themselves of a foreign dictator. It was all speculation, but one thing was certain. Ghostface was to die, tonight. Brenda waited, ready to shoot. All she needed was to get the final command, for them to say the word, "now!" Once she heard it, she would pull the trigger and it would all be over. Officially, they would claim it was a political assassination and that the drug cartels were responsible, and the CIA would clandestinely claim their reward money. Brenda would get her payout and they would part ways, never speaking of this incident again. She wasn't willing to kill for the money, although she was going to keep it. She was in it to get the target of of her and Flynn's backs. She needed to do this. She couldn't back down now. She was behind the gun, sight on her target, loaded and ready.

Brenda was starting to get anxious. Why hadn't they called yet? Why hadn't they just said "now" so she could be done with this mess? Her phone started to ring.


	3. Chapter 3

Quinn Jacobs did not like it when people took the law into their own hands. She found such people to be even worse than ordinary criminals because they encourage vigilantism. They try and make themselves appear sympathetic and they humanize the felons that Jacobs deems to be animals that deserve to be caged. She immediately assumed that Flynn killed Richards and maybe he did, but there were other possibilities. Richards had been hired to kill; what if the man who hired him killed him to cover up his tracks? What if he had a deal with the State Department that went wrong? Instead of starting with the facts first and walking her way back until she got to a killer; she started with her killer and needed to find her facts.

It wasn't a surprise that Flynn lawyered up as soon as possible, so he was a dead end. She needed someone to put him there, and to escape this alibi that she found Provenza had concocted. She would need a lot of proof to take down a Lieutenant with so much experience, so she needed to strike once and for it to be a kill strike.

In her mind, it was all clear. Brenda had a history of vigilantism, but she never pulled the trigger herself. Goldman uncovered how Brenda always got others to do it for her, just enough to escape the cloud of suspicion. She somehow got the drop on Richards, got Flynn the information and then didn't tell him to do anything, knowing Flynn would just kill the bastard. Normally, this wasn't criminal, but if Jacobs could get in the evidence of Brenda's past actions into court, she could argue that there's proof of intent or an absence of mistake. Brenda knew that Flynn would kill him and she gave him the information so that he could.

**Two Weeks Ago**

As pissed as she was with Brenda, she wanted Flynn to go down. She was ready to offer Brenda a lenient deal if Brenda would admit that she gave up the information. Her meeting with Brenda was at 2PM. Brenda was coming to her. She didn't Brenda to feel comfortable in her own playpen. At precisely 2PM, she heard a knock on her door. "Come in."

Brenda wore a black and white suite with black heels, unlike the typical flowery shit she was known to wear, her demeanor firm and cold. She had her game face on. Let's play ball.

"You requested to see me," Brenda said, acting like she didn't know why.

"Yes. Ms. Johnson. As I am sure you know, I am the special prosecutor for the Richards case, and I have a few questions about your relationship with one Andrew Flynn, a former subordinate of yours."

Brenda remained silent.

Jacobs continued. "From what I understand, you two stayed in contact after you left Major Crimes."

"I stayed in contact with all of my former team members, Flynn included."

"Yes, and from what I understand shortly before Richards was murdered Flynn came to see you about him."

Brenda didn't speak on the matter.

"Is that true?"

"Is what true?"

"Did he come to see you about Richards?"

"I don't know. When did he allegedly come?"

"Monday, March 18th 2013 around 10AM."

"I had a meeting with the DA."

"So he didn't come to see you."

"He might have come, but I was at a meeting. We had no plans to meet, so I wouldn't have known to wait for him."

"So you didn't tell him where to find Richards?"

"I did not tell him anything about Richards. I was at a meeting."

"And I take it the DA will confirm this meeting."

"He will," Brenda said coldly. She wasn't breaking, maybe a bit of fire would help.

vigilantism

"From what I understand, you have a history of vigilantism and if I find that you repeated history to off Richards…."

"I have no such history. There were allegations made by a hack job lawyer who should have been disbarred, and the Chief made a judgement call to end the lawsuit against me, not that I agreed with the terms of the settlement. I never agreed to the settlement or to the alleged facts that it was predicated upon and it can only be used as evidence against the city, not against me personally as I am not a party to it. If that will be all, I am quite busy."

Brenda saw herself out.

Jacobs took Brenda's hasty exit as something to hide. She called the DA, who to her surprise did confirm that they did have a meeting at about 10AM that day, he wasn't sure exactly when it got started, but she was there before it started and he did not see her with Flynn or any of her other former team members, other than Gabriel as he is her liaison with the LAPD.

He would be next. She arranged for a meeting with him the following morning, hoping to catch him before he spoke with Chief Johnson about this case.

She dug up everything she could find on him. Apparently, he was, unwittingly of course, the source for Goldman, which means he does disagree with Brenda's tactics and perhaps he can now be persuaded to give evidence against her.

He arrived, seeming a little bit nervous.

"Do I intimidate you, Sergeant, Gabriel?"

"No Ma'am. I am just unsure as to why I am here."

"Well let me explain that to you, do sit down. I am the special prosecutor for the Richards case and I need to get some background information on Lieutenant Andrew Flynn and I was hoping you could help with that."

"I could, but wouldn't his current boss be better. She would have access to his files and everything."

"I already have that information, Gabriel. I am looking to speak with those who know him well."

"I can't say we've talked much since I left Major Crimes."

"From what I understand, that wasn't on good terms."

"They could have been better. They also could have been worse." It wasn't as bad as Sanchez.

"Do you want to explain why they weren't good?"

"I'd rather not."

She pursed her lips. "We can return to that later if it's relevant. Now, you know that Flynn has a daughter who is currently hospitalized."

"Of course. That was such a tragedy, losing her husband like that."

"And you understand that Richards was believed to be the shooter."

"That's the rumor. I don't know why he wasn't jailed immediately."

"Well, I am not sure of why he wasn't, but I need to find out who took him out before he was jailed and I need to know if anyone said anything to you that would shed light on why he was killed."

"Nope."

"No one at all."

"Like who?"

"Like your boss for example?"

"Chief Taylor?"

"No. I thought Chief Johnson was your boss."

"I am a liaison officer so I work with her, but I don't report to her."

"And she didn't say anything about the case."

"No."

"Isn't that odd to you?"

"No. It wasn't her case."

"So she stayed out of the investigation?"

"Yes. I work along side her and I would have known if she were working on the case."

"So she knows nothing about Richards."

"Nothing about those murders. We have investigated him before. He was a criminal."

"But not for murder."

"No, for wire fraud."

"One more question, did Flynn come to see Chief Johnson on the morning of Monday, March 18th 2013?"

"I have no idea."

"So he didn't."

"I can't tell you. I had a meeting with Chief Taylor that morning, so I wasn't at the office."

"And she didn't mention meeting with him."

"No. She didn't, and I don't think it was on her calendar, although I'm not positive."

"Thank you, that will be all, and if you do recall anything else, please feel free. She handed him her card." He saw himself out.

Gabriel knew it couldn't be good that Jacobs was trying to link Flynn to Johnson. Surely, Flynn was a person of interest. He tried not to reveal anything that wouldn't have been easily obtainable otherwise. He wanted to call the Chief but Jacobs might be expecting him to do that. He needed to talk to someone though. Did he get a lawyer? He's not a party to the case. Someone came to mind. Someone who would look out for both Flynn and the Chief.


End file.
